


The Shade of Trees

by Silex



Category: Original Work
Genre: Beginnings, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Great Apes, Non-Human Primates, Platonic Relationships, Post-Apocalypse, Trick or Treat: Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 15:11:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21199724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silex/pseuds/Silex
Summary: The world as they knew it may have ended, but Kitty the lowland gorilla knows that there really isn't such a thing as an ending, just the beginning of something new. For her and the other apes at the primate sanctuary as well as their human companions it might be frightening or confusing at times, but she knows that they'll all make it through and that there are better days ahead.





	The Shade of Trees

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sweetcarolanne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetcarolanne/gifts).

Kitty looked at the sky, watching the storm clouds approaching. That was good, it had been a dry spring and they needed the rain. Winter had been difficult, as it always was, and spring held the promise of new things.

This year, for the first time in a very long time, the gorilla allowed herself to be hopeful. The sanctuary had grown into something so much more than it had been and she was a part of that growth, her, Bo, Allie and Ellie, and all the others. It had been hard work, but to be a part of something, to actually be doing something. It was something that she’d missed dearly since coming to the sanctuary.

“Hopefully there’ll be flowers soon,” Bo huffed, coming up behind her and putting a hand on her shoulder without waiting for permission. It was his way, not that she had to like it, but in this case she was willing to tolerate him.

Her willingness to let him sit with her grew when he began to run his fingers through the thick fur of her back. Yes, the chimpanzee could be pushy sometimes and the ideas he would come up with were only things that he or a human would think of, but he wasn’t without some understanding.

Kitty sighed and let Bo carefully pick bits of dirt and loose hairs from her back, knowing that he would expect her to reciprocate. At least he’d learned not demand that she groom him, something that the lowland gorilla had found insufferable about Bo before, when she’d first met him after arriving at the sanctuary.

There were lots of befores though, something she’d come to understand. There were no such things as beginnings or endings, just before and after and eventually the cycle would go back around and what had been after would become before for something new. Thinking of it that way helped.

Before she’d lived at the sanctuary there had been the research facility and before that, she didn’t know. Someone, perhaps her own mother, had named her Kitty and she and all the others had to have come from somewhere.

They’d been young though, too young to remember much else. It had been necessary, she’d been told when she was old enough to understand. The details of the study hadn’t been explained to her, something about intelligence and the development of language, but there was more to it than that, lots of technical things relating to brain damage, trauma, possibly stroke recovery. There were so many people and primates that weren’t people at the facility that she got the feeling that there were a bunch of different projects going on, all of them involving the brain development or regeneration of brain cells in humans, as well as many other things that were never explained to her.

It hadn’t upset her then and it certainly didn’t upset her now.

The end result had been a number of well cared for, educated and in many cases, beloved, great apes who all had some command of the English language. Language had apparently been deemed necessary as a way of tracking their development and the success of the projects.

So they were taught to speak and perform other tasks to gauge their brain development.

Life at the facility had been fun while it had lasted, but over time things began to change.

The humans that worked with them became harried, new individuals constantly arriving and departing. Overheard discussions revealed that funding was being cut, redirected elsewhere as studies reached completion, until it was explained to Kitty that she would be sent to a new home along with all of the others.

How many ‘all of the others’ was hadn’t been clear to her until some weeks after she arrived at the sanctuary. She’d met some of them, Ajay the orangutan, the bonobo twins Allie and her sister Ellie, and of course the sullen Bo, a resident of the sanctuary who at the time had told no one his name and refused talk, though he was capable of it.

The humans at the sanctuary were nervous around Bo because of his size and age, he was an older male chimpanzee, very set in his ways and very upset that _his_ people weren’t there. As a result Kitty, who was stronger and more capable than most by being a young adult lowland gorilla, had been asked if she was willing to work with him. The introduction had not gone over well, though the chimpanzee was at least willing to respect her size and strength. That seemed to be what mattered to him, though he must have admired his humans, as he called them, for different reasons. She was at least able to get him to talk and start interacting with the others.

They never became friends, even now it was more of mutual respect, but they’d learned to work together.

Helping around the sanctuary let her meet all of the other speech capable great apes, most of them from different research facilities, though there were some who had been taken from private owners, many of them illegally enhanced pets, not that owning great apes was legal to begin with. Kitty quickly learned that there were many things that people did that weren’t legal, much of it to do with genetic and cybernetic modifications.

The sanctuary was frightening at first, but it was a nice place. She had a bedroom that she shared with two younger female gorillas for her to act as a mentor for, as well as a flamboyant orangutan that took her months to make sense of. She was allowed to spend as much time outside as she wanted and there were plenty of forested areas to enjoy.

There was also a large garden and an orchard that the residents of the sanctuary maintained. When things went wrong the garden and orchard became all the more important. The food they grew allowed them to survive the second winter, after supplies ran out and they needed to fend for themselves.

When the third winter came they were ready and after the fourth they had enough that they were able to set aside some for trade.

By the sixth winter the sanctuary was recognized as a place in its own right and treated with respect by the humans in the area. Many of them even reached out to form alliances, which Kitty had been more than happy to accept. Working together through troubling times was necessary and it made her happy to bring people together.

At the start though, she’d not imagined that it would ever come to that. All she had concerned herself with was her own happiness, which came from helping others.

Early on in her stay at the sanctuary it was explained to her that if any of the apes wanted to they were all allowed to have jobs and Kitty quickly took an unofficial job as greeter, making sure that all of the new residents were welcomes and given tours.

Her gregarious and kind nature quickly resulted in her unofficial position becoming official, giving tours not just to new arrivals, but to the press and potential donors for the sanctuary. She became the face of the sanctuary, not that she understood how much that meant until much later.

Then the big crash happened, something to do with someone hacking navigational satellites and dropping them from the sky, while at the same time shutting down all AI run shipping networks. Kitty learned about this when the computers stopped working and the scheduled supply delivery to the sanctuary didn’t come.

The humans running it had done their best to keep things quiet and not let the residents know that anything was wrong. Of course anyone could have seen by their worried expressions and hushed conversations that they were bothered by something and when delivery trucks still didn’t come, thanks to something called rioting happening in places they called cities Kitty understood that the situation was a bad one.

Something called the financial system had shut down completely, a largely imaginary thing that people used to get the things they wanted or needed in exchange for promises. Or at least that was how Kitty understood it. Instead of helping someone in the garden in return for being groomed later you used computers to promise help in return for the promise of grooming later, without helping or grooming ever happening.

In Kitty’s mind it was a bad system full or empty promises that no one ever made good on, but she didn’t understand it so maybe there’d been some good to it.

Not long after that, when things were really bad, the sanctuary got its first human residents other than the sanctuary workers, who Kitty realized had stopped leaving to visit their families, many of them having brought their families to stay with them.

These new humans had been strange, led by a sickly smelling woman, who was the niece of one of the sanctuary workers. Bo, still unnamed at that point, had been instantly smitten with the sickly woman, while she took an instant dislike to him. The chimp announced that they were humans like his had been and he immediately began following them everywhere as they did strange things.

Gardens were made larger, the orchard was expanded and the fence around the sanctuary was repaired, something that had been discussed for the longest time, but hadn’t been taken care of until then.

“It’s the end of the world,” the sickly woman had explained to her aunt, “And all there’s left for me to do is help you babysit your monkeys.”

She was rude and angry, like Bo would have been if he was a human woman rather than a chimpanzee, which was probably why the two of them ended up getting along so well in the end. She was the one who named him, calling him Bozo when he wouldn’t leave her alone, asking her questions constantly. That was fine though, because Bo was bilingual, speaking and signing with equal fluency and the sign he used for the woman’s name was horribly rude, relating to her awful smell.

The woman had been in the army and she and her friends found new tasks for the great ape residents of the sanctuary, teaching them to walk laps of the edge of the sanctuary, pulling the largest trees they could down across the roads in and out and other things, terrible things that Bo and many of the other chimpanzees found far too enjoyable for Kitty’s liking. It did make them more tolerable though, which went to show that chimpanzees were a different sort. They liked pulling down trees and making a lot of noise and watching as though they expected someone to do something awful.

Except is wasn’t all awful things. Kitty was lucky enough to help raise seeds in the greenhouse over the winter and during that time she got to watch as Bo and the sickly woman worked together and talked about the future. The sanctuary was going to need to be able to fend for itself for a long time according to the woman, maybe forever, because people were taking advantage of the disorder to air old grudges. Things falling apart had been long overdue, she’d said, and now it would be a very long time before they settled out.

It had been a frightening thing to hear, but it helped her put things in perspective. Kitty knew her job was an important one, but she hadn’t taken it seriously until that point. Talking to people and apes, making sure they were comfortable had largely been a passive effort before that, but hearing that conversation she knew that more would be necessary.

She planned a meeting with the other female gorillas as well as the bonobos, who by that point had agreed that Allie and Ellie were their leaders, and developed a plan. Small kindnesses were going to be necessary to get through the winter, favorite blankets and nests were to be shared, anyone who knew how to sew was assigned to make soft toys for the younger members of the sanctuary, both ape and human, and anyone who looked disheveled or depressed would instantly be beset by a mob of bonobos to be groomed.

Of course, given that Kitty made it her job to try and talk to everyone in the sanctuary, whether or not they were able to talk themselves, this meant that she would often find herself tackled by Allie and Ellie as they set to work brushing her fur. Often times she would end up dragging them around or have one of them riding on her back as they tried to tease out one last tangle, real or imagined, much to the delight of anyone watching. The bonobos all had contagious smiles, but Allie and Ellie were especially radiant.

Even the sanctuary’s resident orangutans, who normally kept to themselves, were involved by the end of things, helping prepare for planting in the spring and using their odd sense of logic to see answers to problems that anyone else might overlook. They were the ones who suggested that if they couldn’t top the fence with wire that they should plant blackberries and raspberries there, so that people wanting to get in would have to stop and that anyone patrolling the fence would have something to eat when the fruit was in season.

She let out a small squeal when Bo found a bur in her fur and yanked it free.

He’d interrupted her thoughts, and she glared at him.

He leered back, daring her to do or say something, as was his way. She was bigger and stronger than him, which he respected, but he was meaner than her.

Once and only once, had she needed to put him in his place physically, and it had been something neither of them had enjoyed, though afterwards he had learned that shoving her was a mistake.

“Do that again and you can brush your own arms,” Kitty said calmly, not even bothering to look at Bo, which she knew bothered him. He thought it was funny when he managed to get her to act aggressively, “Or ask Allie and Ellie’s boy to do it for you. He’s smitten with you, you know.”

“No, not that, no,” Bo said, with a shudder, fingers moving to emphasize what he had with signing. She could feel his nervous words against her back and smiled.

“Why not?” She laughed softly, “You said you wanted more men with you the next time our neighbors showed up to trade.”

“He’s so little,” Bo pressed his face against the fur of her neck, sniffing deeply, “I’m afraid I’ll break the boy when he asks to be petted. I’d want you to come along. You talk better with people and they’ll take you seriously.”

“They take you very seriously,” Kitty said, reaching around to scratch Bo’s shaggy arm, He was fishing for reassurance, she realized. He may have been the more aggressive one, but she was far larger and stronger than him and he respected that on a near instinctual level, “You said that the trade went well and that they understand this place belongs to us, that some of them even want to join with us for protection.”

Bo nodded, but not with his usual pride, “Humans aren’t very strong, but they’re fierce. They respect us because they think that we’re better armed than we are, that we’re stronger than we are, but there’s more than that. If they see you that’ll cement the idea for them. People know you, they respect you. To them this place belongs to you, they call it Kitty’s Sanctuary. The farmers and communities near here made alliances with us because people know you, they hear your name and think of this place and what it represents, safety.”

Kitty didn’t need to point out that the humans of the sanctuary were never afraid, careful at times, but never afraid and that the sickly woman’s friends were still with them, some even having managed to bring their families and more friends to the sanctuary. They were, form her conversation with those humans, well-armed, but also well respected. That wasn’t what Bo needed to hear though.

“The trees will be lovely this spring, don’t worry. And so will the flowers.”

Bo sighed and rubbed his face harder in her fur. Kitty thought it was a strange habit, but she knew where he’d picked it up, how when he was sad he would wipe his face. He didn’t cry like a human would, but humans did and he imitated so many of their actions out his odd ideas of respect.

And right now apparently he needed to cry, safe with her, away from other chimpanzees who wouldn’t understand. Or would and feel sorry for him in ways that he didn’t need. Kitty had gleaned that he had been raised by humans without the full understanding of what it meant to be a chimpanzee and that he felt caught between those two sides of himself.

Just as Kitty had mediated between individuals of different species, she was able to help Bo find his balance.

“Humans carve…things, important things, on rocks, important things and I want a rock carved for her,” Bo said quietly, his words slow and slurred as they got when he was upset.

Kitty turned around and took one of his hands in hers, slowly parting the fur of his arm, working her way through it one section at a time, just like he liked it. It was the stiff, systematic way that humans often used when grooming someone, but it was sure to make Bo relax.

The sickly smelling woman had worked hard with her human friends as well as Bo and the other chimpanzees, teaching them how to make their natural ferocity and territoriality into something good. Finding that there were humans with these traits had been wonderful for the chimpanzees, who of all the great apes were the least represented at the sanctuary. It had been frightening for them, with their ideas of power and influence, to be so outnumbered when so much seemed uncertain and frightening, but the sickly smelling woman and her friends had helped them, explained that there were humans just like them, who worked to protect others and that to do so was a very important thing, especially because of how many people depended on a much smaller number of protectors. It gave Bo a sense of place in the world.

She knew about the humans and their rocks, as well as what Bo wasn’t saying, it was about that sense of place.

The sanctuary did have a graveyard, neat little rows of stones where departed residents of the sanctuary were laid to rest, which was what Bo’s talk of stones had her thinking of.

Apes and actual monkeys, as well as other creatures, and, though the sickly woman wasn’t dead, Kitty could understand Bo wanting to have a place to remember her as well as his other human family, who he never talked about.

Kitty hoped that they were okay and that eventually Bo would be reunited with them so that his human and chimpanzee families could meet each other. He needed that badly with his closest human friend gone.

The sickly smelling woman had managed to hide it from her aunt for a very long time, a human’s nose not quite keen enough to pick up on it, but eventually even the other humans could tell. How tired she was, how she had a hard time keeping up with her friends, the fellow soldiers who had come to the sanctuary to protect it because they knew what it represented.

An island of stability in a world that must have felt like it was falling apart around them.

The woman had finally admitted that she had been caught in something called an EMP without proper shielding and that the nanomachines in her weren’t working the way they should. Her friends had all been awed, apparently thinking that her nanites had been fully functional. That she’d done as much as she had without them, it was a throwback to how things had been before nanotechnology was widespread.

At the insistence of her friends she’d gone to the sanctuary’s veterinary building to be examined, taking Bo with her and instructing him to bite anyone who came by to see how she was.

Bo had smiled when she’d made that request and Kitty could easily recall how large and sharp his teeth were. That was Bo’s mean smile, the one he gave when he was ready to put one of his fellow chimpanzees into place.

Bo had been the only one allowed to follow her and had stayed with her for several days as tests were run.

At the end of it the sickly woman had come out and said simply that she didn’t need anything done for her, that everything would be fine.

But that wasn’t what she meant and later she would confess as much to Kitty.

The malfunctioning nanomachines had done something to her kidneys and liver and there was nothing that could be done at the sanctuary. It was possible that if she made it one of the cities where they had a hospital up and running that she might have a chance, but with everything going on she didn’t think it was worth it.

She didn’t want to leave the sanctuary undefended, though it would only be her and a few of her companions leaving.

The woman was just like Bo that way, thinking that her being gone would mean that they were helpless.

Surprisingly, with Bo at her side, she seemed to rally, making amends with her aunt for something that neither of them ever discussed, continuing to help around the sanctuary and doing whatever she could.

All the while she smelled sicker and sicker, Bo never leaving her side, having constant quiet conversations with her.

Still, last spring the sickly woman had found time to help in the orchard, planting rows and rows of seedlings like a machine, Bo watering the saplings behind her.

In the afternoon she’d gone to rest beneath one of the older trees, gently stroking Bo’s arms, before getting up and seeking Kitty out.

She was going, on her own, to the nearest city. Bo and her aunt had reached out to them and they would treat her for the sake of an alliance with the sanctuary and the farmers it had come to represent.

Apparently the quiet conversations weren’t simply her giving Bo instructions for keeping the sanctuary safe, but Bo begging her to think of herself.

She left alone, forbidding Bo from following her, promising that she would send a message as soon as she reached the next nearest settlement.

And she did, joining a trade caravan heading to the city.

After that it had been many months before they heard from her again, but finally the letter reached them. She was fine and more importantly, because that was the way the sickly woman had thought of things, the reputation of the sanctuary was such that the people of the city were asking for a trade agreement.

“I’ll ask the humans to make a stone for her,” Kitty said quietly, hoping that speaking was the right thing to do, “What name should I tell them to put on it?”

Because the sickly woman had been called many things, affectionate names by her aunt, rude terms of endearment by Bo, and respectful titles by the humans she travelled with. Her interactions with Kitty had been excessively formal to the point where Kitty didn’t even know her given name.

“No name,” Bo huffed, watching Kitty’s fingers move through his fur, “She wants the stone on the way into the orchard to and it needs to say ‘A society is great when men plant trees they’ll never climb.’ She said it to me while we were working in the orchard, when I asked her what made her come here to help.”

It was a strange thing, something that Kitty hadn’t expected of the sickly woman, which made the gorilla wish that she had known her better.

“When the humans come I’ll come with you,” Kitty said as the rain began to fall, “I can ask if they can carve stone or have the tools for it and we’ll get her stone made.”

Bo looked up, winkling his deeply creased nose as the cold drops pattered against his sleek fur, “It’s a good thing to remember.”

“It is,” Kitty agreed.

The storm had finally come and it would rain, but then there would be sun again.

The sickly woman had been hopeful, in his own way Bo was hopeful, and Kitty supposed that in the end everyone was.

There was always tomorrow, always the future, and even if none of them were around for it the good they did would be known by those who came afterwards for generations to come.

Bo smiled at her, not his mean smile, but the one that made her see why Allie and Ellie’s son was so in love with him, “I’ve already told the bonobos that you’ll be coming with me and that you need help getting ready. With their help you’re sure to impress the city humans.”

Kitty glared at him with mock severity. It was so very much like Bo to find a way to turn the threat of a grooming session with Allie and Ellie back on her. Darling as the pair was, Kitty couldn’t help but wonder how two beings so small could have such endless energy.

“Let’s get inside before they come looking for us,” Kitty said, pushing herself from a sitting position to her hands and feet.

Bo stretched like a cat, lanky, but powerful arms reaching out in front of him, “I wouldn’t mind if they brought tea, but I’d much rather get my own tea.”

Kitty watched him walk off on his own and she smiled.

The upcoming meeting with the city humans would be important in so many ways, but she wasn’t nervous about it. She had her friends with her and all would be fine.

**Author's Note:**

> The idea of a great ape becoming the ruler of a post apocalyptic world is just such a neat concept. I originally thought that I'd write something silly, but the more I thought about it the more I wondered, how would something like that happen? So consider this an origin story for Kitty, the gorilla who will eventually be elected president of the world.


End file.
